Debbie Weber deserves some sort of award for creatively turning lemons into lemonade.
In this case, what would sour most people is having hundreds of golf balls fly into your back yard, an annoyance those living next to a fairway must contend with but hardly enjoy.
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After moving into their dream home in 2020, however, Weber and her husband Larry were astounded at the number of balls sailing onto their property from Tamarack Golf Course off Route 59 in southern Naperville.
And so, she decided to return all the wayward balls to the golfers, but do so in a way it would raise money for one of her favorite charities: Loaves & Fishes food pantry, where Larry has volunteered for many years.
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After collecting hundreds of them last year with a neighbor, Debbie Weber placed them in a bin on the 17th hole that borders her back yard, with a sign that touted “Free Golf Balls” and a suggestion that in exchange, they leave behind some cash for the food pantry.
Every day, several times a day, she would replenish the bin and gather up the money that had been left, faithfully bringing her stash in at night and putting the container and sign back out again first thing in the morning.
The balls ran out after five weeks, but the amount collected was an impressive $2,677 for the food pantry. It was a feat that caught the attention of the neighborhood magazine, which ran an article about what she was doing in early 2022.
That, in turn, brought in more balls and thousands more dollars. Last year, Weber told me, she was able to donate $6,210 to Loaves & Fishes.
“People are so generous … I had no idea we would collect that much money,” she said, noting some golfers would come to her front door and hand her a couple of $20s because they did not want to leave so much unguarded cash.
Last summer for Father’s Day Weber gifted her husband with a “fancy golf retriever” that made it possible to harvest more balls, not just in back yards but on the golf course itself, where they would otherwise have remained over the winter.
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With two big bins ready to go, Weber is teeing up for another season. This time, she pointed out, her sign has slightly different wording, politely asking balls be taken ONLY if there is a donation, that she hopes will discourage some of the “younger men” who at times would “take their golf shirts and make pockets to take as many as possible without leaving anything.”
Weber called me about this clever fundraising idea because there are plenty more golf courses in the Fox Valley and plenty more balls that could be turned into much-needed green for local pantries.
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If you’ve been paying attention to headlines, you know the federal government’s COVID-19 emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were cut on Wednesday, even though grocery costs remain around 11% higher than a year ago.
In response, the West Suburban Community Pantry put out a press release indicating it was serving nearly four times the number of DuPage households than in 2021. In a recent news article, Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry in Aurora reported double the number of users in January over the previous year, a trend that was echoed by Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry.
Likewise, Loaves & Fishes has seen its numbers more than double, from around 3,000 last year to 7,000 in January, according to CEO Mike Havala.
The number one challenge, he told me, is that demand has “increased far in excess of the food supply.”
Because wages have not caught up with inflation, those living paycheck to paycheck are dealt a “double whammy,” he pointed out, and “have no choice” but to pull back on what is spent at grocery stores.
All of which is going on even as the pantries themselves struggle to keep up with the rising cost of food.
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The good news is that money going to these pantries not only helps support the organization, those dollars can be used to buy items at discounted rates or to support other operations, including food rescue.
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Food pantries everywhere, of course, rely on a diversity of funding options throughout the year to meet these growing challenges. The golf ball idea, Weber insists, is just one easy way to “really bring the community together” that can benefit those less fortunate.
“I don’t see why other golf course communities wouldn’t want to see how much money they could raise for charity, just by setting out a bin” of retrieved balls.
“Amazing” and “creative” is how Havala of Loaves & Fishes described Weber’s efforts.
But the 66-year-old woman, who took care of 36 newborns over the couple’s many years as foster parents, prefers the word “joy.”
“I’ve been blessed,” said Weber, who was delighted to find a couple buckets of golf balls left anonymously by her front door just a couple days ago.
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“If I did not give back I would not be able to live with myself.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
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